


Andromeda Initiative: Weapons Test.

by oOAchilliaOo



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-09
Updated: 2017-03-09
Packaged: 2018-10-01 18:11:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10195943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oOAchilliaOo/pseuds/oOAchilliaOo
Summary: The Ryder twins get their hands on some off the new ‘Andromeda Initiative’ weapons and decide to test them out (despite what their father said).





	

“Why though?”

“Why would you not?” 

“I don’t know. It’s not very… versatile, is it?” 

“It’s a warhammer, sis. You smash things with it. It doesn’t need to be versatile.” 

“Yeah. Okay. But what if you need to do something other than hit things very, very hard?” 

“I don’t understand the question.” 

Sara rolled her eyes. There was no reasoning with her twin when he got like this. Not that he was nearly as badass as he was pretending to be, of course. He was just deliberately winding her up. 

And, annoyingly, he was succeeding. 

“The asari sword is a much better melee,” she insisted, trying (despite knowing better) to talk some sense into him. “It’s biotic, easy to carry, elegant, versatile…” 

“And a girl’s weapon.” 

She couldn’t help it. Even though she knew he was goading her, pushing her into using the weapons that their father had expressly told them not to use only hours earlier, she still couldn’t stop herself from turning an icy glare his way. 

“Say that again,” she growled at him through gritted teeth, certain that he’d see the slight smile on her lips and know her anger was artificial. 

After all, it wasn’t like she didn’t want to play with the new Andromeda Initiative melee weapons. In fact, she was dying to play with them, and she was sure Scott was too. 

They just needed an… excuse. 

“A sword is a girl’s weapon,” Scott repeated, his eyes twinkling. 

“All right, jackass. Grab your warhammer, I’ll show you a girl’s weapon.” 

Scott grinned. “You’re the best.” He paused just long enough to give her a quick one armed-hug before reaching for the hammer with unapologetic glee. 

Sara rolled her eyes again. “If you wanted me to hand your ass to you, you could have just asked.” 

“Yeah,” he drawled, shrugging. “But this was more fun.” 

He lifted the warhammer from its rack and, to her eternal delight, staggered a little under its weight. In response, Sara unsheathed the sword. Smiling, she swung it through the air, partly in order to get a sense of the speed and balance, but also, mostly, to show off that she could. Easily.

“Show off.” Scott stomped over to a corner of the ring. 

Sara grinned, taking up her position opposite him. “Just to first touch?” she asked. At his disappointed look, she added, “or you can explain your cuts and bruises to Dad.”

“Good point.” He nodded and hefted the warhammer into a fighting stance. “To first touch, then.” 

An elegant flick of her wrist and the sword sliced through the air with a pleasing swoosh sound and up into her own fighting stance. It was adapted from an asari discipline she’d been taught on one of the many stations she’d either lived on, or possibly worked on, she didn’t remember which. 

The very moment she was ready, Scott attacked. 

Two quick swings (one left, one right). She only just leapt out of the way in time, dropping and rolling. The warhammer was longer than she’d anticipated and therefore, for the moment, distance was her friend. 

The next time he attacked, he swung overhead and this time she charged the sword with biotic power and met him head on. The hammer almost bounced off the mass effect field, but Scott threw more of his considerable (not that she would ever, ever admit it) strength behind it and they each ended up pushing against the other. 

“Cheat,” he hissed over their crossed weaponry, his grinning face just barely distinguishable through the swirling field of blue. “No biotics!”

“It’s a biotic sword,” she hissed back with a corresponding grin. “What did you expect?!” 

Before he could answer she suddenly dropped the field, ducking and rolling under the hammer. In one fluid movement she brought the sword up to make one precise slice, leapt to her feet and placed the flat of the blade right against Scott’s neck. 

“Gotcha.” 

A second later, her brother’s pants fell to his knees. 

She’d sliced the waistband. 

The warhammer fell to the floor with a clatter as Scott cursed and tried to pull up his pants as quickly as possible. Sadly for him, he wasn’t quite quick enough that she didn’t get a chance to see his brightly coloured underwear. 

“Blasto, bro?” she said, eyebrows raised. “Seriously? Blasto. On your underwear.” 

“I like it,” Scott huffed defensively. 

“It’s the stupidest thing ever.”

“You take that back.” 

“I will,” she agreed. “As soon as you admit that the sword is a superior melee weapon.” 

“Never.” 

*

Ten minutes later, the door to the cargo bay slid open and Alec Ryder strode in to find his two adult, intelligent, brave children… wrestling on the floor. 

“Take it back!” Scott growled as he twisted Sara’s arm behind her back. 

“Never!” Sara snapped, slipping out of her brother’s grasp and rolling over to immediately trap him in a headlock. “You take it back!” She squeezed her arms tighter around his head as she ignored the blows he was landing on her torso. 

Alec was inclined to let them just get on with it. They were always careful enough not to leave any permanent damage and he figured they were a little too old to be forcibly separated by ‘daddy’. 

Then he saw the discarded warhammer. And the sword lying just a little way away from it. 

“Teeeeeeeeeension,” he barked. 

They separated immediately, scrambling to their feet. He couldn’t possibly miss the fact that both pairs of hazel eyes darted guiltily towards the discarded weapons even as they stood smartly to attention in front of him. 

“I’m waiting for an explanation,” he said calmly. 

They both spoke at once, “Well, ah…” “What happened was…” 

“What happened is that you two got into a silly argument and decided to solve it by duelling with the weapons I expressly told you not to touch.” His weary voice cut across them, in no mood for a rambling explanation from either twin. 

“Kind of,” Scott conceded. 

“Maybe. A little bit yeah, sorry,” Sara mumbled. 

Alec rubbed his forehead and sighed. Twins. Still double the work even after they’d supposedly grown up. 

“Was it at least a good fight?” he asked, forcing himself not to smile. 

“Oh yeah,” Sara said immediately, eyes alight. 

“Not really,” Scott mumbled at the same time. 

Mentally he chalked that up as another win to Sara. On the on-going scoreboard he’d kept since their birth, that put her… two points up on her brother. 

He was about to sentence them both to boot polishing duties when his omni-tool beeped. 

“This is Ryder,” he answered the call; the mini-fabricator projecting the image of Jien Garson. 

“Pathfinder,” she greeted him. The grin almost split her face in two. “She’s ready.” 

The sentence stirred a strange emotion in him. The ship, his ship. His top of the line research vessel that would be their home as they explored the uncharted and utterly unknown regions of the Andromeda galaxy. 

The Tempest. 

“On my way.” 

He shut down the ‘tool, and lowered his arm to find two excited and adorably hopeful gazes. 

“Come on then. Let’s go see her,” he sighed. “But after that, you’re both polishing boots!” 

“Yessir!”


End file.
